‘Hear Word’ celebrates successful Harvard run

As a way of celebrating the a successful tour of the US and the International Women’s Day which is marked today, the cast of stage drama, ‘Hear Word’, on Tuesday hosted theatre lovers to a soiree at Roots Bar situated at Raymond Njoku, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Speaking at the ceremony, Nollywood actress, Ufuoma McDermott explained that ‘Hear Word’, which is pidgin for ‘Listen’, sold out every single seat in every show in winter, describing it as a feat.

“People understood what we were saying. Even though we tell Nigerian stories, we understand from our tours around the world now that the stories are global stories. People understood what we are saying even though we didn’t have to translate it. And we went with a message. This is not just a play for you to come, relax, watch and go home. What we do is while you are laughing, we throw in a message. And that is why it is called Listen (Hear Word),” she said.

Also speaking, one of the cast members, Elvina Ibru, described the drama as a series of monologues about the plight of the Nigerian woman and the issues that surround them socially, economically, politically and spiritually; from child abuse to problems with health to certain peculiar cultures or traditions to just individual pressure.

“So there are a few scenes that are peculiar to Nigeria. But generally the stories can be related to women from all over the world. And more importantly, it is not a man-bashing drama. The message is even more to women than men,” she stated.

Writer and Director of the play, Ifeoma Fafunwa, stated that following the successful winter showing, the show has been garnering invites from all over the world. In her words, letters have been pouring in from Australia, London, Canada, Brazil and around Africa.

“So we believe that we will be touring. We believe that the message we bring is universal and it I relevant. There is a global movement towards gender equality and so we find that we are very relevant. Given that, we believe that we are going to be moving around the world for the next three years, and that there will be more parts,” she promised.